


All Hope Wrapped in Faith

by somnivagrantTraviatus



Series: TaiQrow Nonsense [1]
Category: RWBY
Genre: (Yangst plays quietly in the background), Branwens are not nice, Gen, Past Abuse, Qrow is an excellent mimic (and I use this for angst), Suicidal Thoughts (mentioned), Tai goes to therapy, Tai's year-long depression nap, and you're just gonna have to deal with that, both Tai and Qrow need adults but sadly they are the adults, post-Summer pre-canon, saying things you shouldn't because you're angry and your teammate is very punchable, self-harming behavior (not cutting), sometimes you wake up and know that you're gonna get punched today, trans Tai (not super relevant but true nonetheless)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-18 02:01:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28984554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somnivagrantTraviatus/pseuds/somnivagrantTraviatus
Summary: How Tai punched Qrow in the face, got a much-needed wake-up call, and started on the road to recovery.
Relationships: Past Summer Rose/Taiyang Xiao Long, Pre-Qrow Branwen/Taiyang Xiao Long, Qrow Branwen & Ruby Rose & Taiyang Xiao Long & Yang Xiao Long, Qrow Branwen & Taiyang Xiao Long, pre-Qrow Branwen + Taiyang Xiao Long
Series: TaiQrow Nonsense [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2126112
Comments: 2
Kudos: 24





	All Hope Wrapped in Faith

The Patch house was well secured. Nothing got on that property that shouldn't be there – wards or barriers or some magic bullshit. Ozpin’s wedding present. Qrow had tuned most of the explanation out, but it did its job. No Grimm wandered in, they didn't get burglars, and even Raven felt safe enough to leave Omen at the threshold, back when she had set foot in the place.

The upshot to that was the house itself was less secure than Summer’s cookie jar. (Tucked away in the tallest cabinets, childproofed and slowly attracting ants.) Qrow didn't need to pick the lock to Tai's room. He could have kicked the door down, or punched a hole in the wall, or broke a window. He picked it anyway. The way his luck went, this was gonna go poorly. He could at least pretend to respect Tai’s craftsmanship.

“Up and at ‘em,” he called, the familiar mission wake-up call cold and jagged on his tongue. “Wakey, wakey, Sleeping Beauty; you got stuff to do and mouths to feed.”

Tai’s answer was little more than a grumble from under the covers. Rolling his eyes, Qrow threw the blinds open, revealing the mess to the light of day.

Clothes on the floor – too many to have any right being there, too few for him to have worn since his last laundry pickup. Dishes the kids had left at his door sprawled over every surface, some empty, more approaching full, several of them well on their way to inedible. (Shame the ward didn't keep out bugs.) Tai himself, greasy and unwashed when Qrow wrestled the quilt back. His nose wrinkled. Yeah, it smelled as rank as you'd expect.

“Go away,” Tai growled, still scrabbling for the covers. Like a fucking _Sulfur Fish._ Qrow tasted bile. This wasn't Tai. This had to be some sort of imposter, because if Tai was anything he was a _dragon,_ not this pale, sickly thing that flinched from the light, and if this were Tribe he'd be killed on the spot.

Be a lot easier than whatever this was. 

Tribe or not, Qrow was still a fucking Branwen. That was why his hand twitched for Harbinger. (Why he'd left it at the door.) But Tai wasn't Tribe, and the kids had lost enough already. 

(It had taken him shamefully long to realize, oh. This isn't normal.)

“If I'm going, so are you,” Qrow informed him instead, pitching for aggressively cheerful. “You've had your sulk. Time to be a big boy, man up, and take care of your _fucking kids._ ”

Rage lit his eyes like lightning on a dreary day, and something in Qrow’s gut unclenched. This, he knew what to do with. “Yang can take care of herself,” Tai bit out.

“Yang,” Qrow replied, just as icy, “is _six years old._ Just turned seven, actually – shame you missed the party.”

Tai had missed a whole lot more than that. If he'd just gotten off his ass and done what he was supposed to – given his kids the childhood he kept saying kids were supposed to get – then maybe Qrow wouldn’t’ve had to rescue them from a Grimm nest clear on the _other side of the woods,_ hoping _Raven_ of all people would come take care of them. But bringing _that_ up was a one-way ticket to inconvenient questions, like “Why were they looking for her, anyway?” and Qrow had no desire to let Tai in on his suspicions about that.

No problem. He had plenty of other ammunition. “She and Ruby – you know, your _other kid?_ They had me put your voice on to say happy birthday. ‘pparently they're _forgetting what you sound like._ ”

Tai’s face shuttered. “Good. Sounds like you're a better dad to them, anyway.”

“Ohohohhh no.” Qrow laughed, humorless. “You don't get to play that card. I'd be a shit excuse for a parent and we both know it.”

Tai looked away and down – over to Summer’s side of the bed. “Yeah,” he grunted. “You smell like a bar threw up on you.”

“Hey, how'd you guess how I spent my night?” He hadn't really expected a laugh, but... an eye roll? A snort? Something. Instead, Tai’s shoulders stayed hunched around his ears, and his gaze stayed fixed on the air in front of Summer’s pillow. Qrow sighed, running a hand through his bangs. This called for a different tack. “Listen. I get it, you know? Summer…” Tai flinched. He readjusted. “The world’s a worse place without her. But she wouldn't want you to live like this.”

“You get it, huh?” A tremor ran down Tai’s arms. The rhythm of the words, the snappy cadence, was all snarky interchange on the dropship, on their mission transport, in their dorm room, but the undercurrent was something sharp-edged and cold. “Just curious– how many wives did you lose, again?”

He could get angry about that, but that part of him was distant. Removed. Yeah, he'd heard the barbs. He just wasn't playing that game. “Didn't have to marry her to love her.” His lips canted. “Think everyone that met her loved her, really. We just got the best of it.”

Fury cracked across Tai’s face. “You weren't there,” he hissed. “Your sister picked up and ran away, and you ran off somewhere to go boozing and whoring around, taking any mission you could get and hoping it'd kill you so you wouldn't have to look at how shitty your fucking life is.” He’d gotten louder, by that point. Qrow hoped the walls were more soundproof than his hotel room’s. Yang didn't need to hear this. “Summer was here. Summer picked up the pieces. And as soon as you came back, she went and got herself killed.” Tai’s chest heaved. For a moment, Qrow thought that was it, but he took a breath and gathered another burst of defiance. “You should have stayed away,” Tai spat, “and kept your fucking bad luck _out_ of our _fucking_ lives.”

Qrow rocked back, shaken. The anger was one thing – he'd expected that. But it hurt more than he’d thought it would, to hear the things he'd always known were lurking under Tai’s sunshine surface. All that stuff about not caring about his Semblance was bullshit all along, huh? No surprise. It was alright, though. Everything he'd said was true.

He breathed in through his nose and let it out, slow. “Cool. We're doing this the hard way, then.”

Picking someone up was more about angles and leverage than raw strength. It was still much easier to pick Tai up than Qrow would have liked – he'd have some serious eating to do if he wanted to put that weight back on. Qrow got about a step and a half in before Tai realized what was happening and turned to magma in his arms.

“Put me down.”

Qrow glanced over, considering. “You gonna walk?”

He got a foot to the face for his trouble. Tai wrestled his way out of the carry and landed like a Beowolf, all hunched over on the balls of his feet and snarling. Probably hoping to scare Qrow off like one too. Gods, he was practically a wild animal. “Don't. _Ever._ Do that again.”

“I wouldn't _have_ to,” he snarled back, “if you'd just get up and off your fucking ass.” Sucked for you, Tai; he'd dealt with worse any time he had to talk Raven out of a bad mood. She was a lot like the Tribe leader, that way.

(Something small and vulnerable hurt at having to do this here, at the Patch house. This wasn't supposed to happen here.)

(It was fine. He'd reward himself with a drink, after, and the little voice would go away.)

Tai was shaking with anger, but it wasn't enough. Qrow needed something heavier, something that'd really hurt. A catalyst.

His eyes fell shut. When they scraped open again, there was nothing but the Tribe left.

“They'd be ashamed of you,” he said. Tai paled, reeling, and the Branwen pinned him there, red eyes drilling down past any hint of blue. “Look at you. One person died and now the world’s ending? Get a grip! People die every day. Your daughters almost died today, and you were too busy waiting for a dead woman to notice. You're pathetic.”

There it was. Incandescent rage lit Tai, like a sun, from the inside, turning his golden skin ruddy and his eyes almost as red as Raven’s. That made it easier not to react when his fist hit Qrow’s jaw like a semitruck.

He didn't put his aura up. Tai needed it to hurt. They both did. Instead he rolled with the punch, letting the snap of his head take some of the momentum and some of the pain. Tai would never forgive himself if he actually broke Qrow’s jaw over this.

They stood there for a minute, crack still echoing through the room – or maybe that was just Qrow’s ears. When Tai didn't move, Qrow rolled his jaw, feeling out the extent of the ache. Yeah, that'd take a few days to heal up.

(Good.)

Tai’s shoulders shuddered. Before he could step back, Qrow pulled him in, hugging as much as his arms could cover. “Better?”

It took a moment, but Tai squeezed back. A second more, and he began to quake, tears dampening the shoulder of Qrow’s cape. Qrow let him cry.

They stood there, hating themselves, until they couldn't cry anymore.

Finally, Tai swallowed, face buried in the crook of Qrow’s shoulder. “I need help,” he whispered, voice cracking.

“Yeah,” Qrow agreed, just as broken. He ran a hand through Tai’s hair, cradling him close. “Don't worry, sunshine,” he said, all hope wrapped in faith. “You'll make it there.”


End file.
